On James Freeman *

Watch for Updates

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* More formally known as James Alan Springer

I ran across James on the Internet not so long ago. He is one of those would-be activists of sorts who has made himself into a pubic nuisance by shoving his camera in peoples faces and filming his exploits with law enforcement officials and others.

James is kinda proud of his confrontations with law enforcement and his various arrests and charges, but in recent months it appears he has upped his game a little by garnering the attention of the federal courts by, allegedly, illegally filming Fort Huachuca in Arizona. There he was arrested and charged and is awaiting a trial before a magistrate judge, without a jury. He is free, by agreement, pending disposition of the charges.

18 U.S.C. 795 (Count I)

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Photographing and sketching defense installations

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(a) Whenever, in the interests of national defense, the President defines certain vital military and naval installations or equipment as requiring protection against the general dissemination of information relative thereto, it shall be unlawful to make any photograph, sketch, picture, drawing, map, or graphical representation of such vital military and naval installations or equipment without first obtaining permission of the commanding officer of the military or naval post, camp, or station, or naval vessels, military and naval aircraft, and any separate military or naval command concerned, or higher authority, and promptly submitting the product obtained to such commanding officer or higher authority for censorship or such other action as he may deem necessary.

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(b) Whoever violates this section shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

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18 U.S.C. 1382 (Count II)

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Entering military, naval, or Coast Guard property

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Whoever, within the jurisdiction of the United States, goes upon any military, naval, or Coast Guard reservation, post, fort, arsenal, yard, station, or installation, for any purpose prohibited by law or lawful regulation; or

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Whoever reenters or is found within any such reservation, post, fort, arsenal, yard, station, or installation, after having been removed therefrom or ordered not to reenter by any officer or person in command or charge thereof—

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Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

Man filming Fort Huachuca gate arrested, charged

FORT HUACHUCA — Fort Huachuca police arrested a man on several charges Tuesday afternoon after he refused to stop filming at the Buffalo Soldier Gate.

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James Springer, also known as James Freeman, was on fort property across the street from the gate, recording with a video camera, according to a press release.

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He was charged with unlawful photography of a military installation, entering a military installation for any purpose prohibited by law or lawful regulation, and failure to identify. He was also issued a letter denying him access to the post, the press release said.

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Springer was released on his own recognizance after being questioned and charged.

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A Fort Huachuca officer approached Springer at approximately 4:45 p.m. and asked him to identify himself and to stop filming. Springer repeatedly refused the officer’s requests or responded with silence.

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After 10 minutes, two officers placed Springer into custody.

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The incident has been widely viewed in numerous YouTube videos, including one that had received more than 35,000 views as of Thursday afternoon.

Begin Text

Full docket text for document 28:

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Status Conference as to James Alan Springer held on 8/10/2018 at the request of PTS.

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Defendant not prepared for PTS interview; returned to speak with the Court.

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The Court hears from Mike Himelic, PTSO and confirms that the first home visit can be by appointment with defendant.

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The defendant confirms thereafter, he must abide by PTS conditions of release, or the Court will have no other option then to take him into custody.

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Defendant states he will comply and wishes to return to PTS office to complete the interview.

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Further, PTS will contact Texas PTS offices where the defendant lives and will be supervised to find out what they want to do about future home visits.
.Appearances: AUSA Rui Wang for the Government, retained attorney Tom Higgins for defendant. Defendant is present and released.

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(Recorded by COURTSMART.)

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Hearing held 4:00 pm to 4:10 pm.

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This is a TEXT ENTRY ONLY. There is no PDF document associated with this entry. (BHA)

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End Text

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Update August 18, 2018

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I am thinking all the checkpoint guys know James and his freaky friends by now and it all just depends on how much time they have on their hands as far as giving them a hard time and letting them stop long enough for a video.

In substance, the Government’s motion that the Court take judicial notice of certain matters was Granted while the defendant was told he could not make certain defenses.

The defendant has also taken on a private lawyer, Thomas Higgins, of Tucson, AZ.

The trial has been rescheduled to late in November, by agreement.

Update November 26, 2018

After a certain amount of posturing, the following docket entry advises us of the current status of the proceedings in the criminal charge against James Springer as it relates to his filming at Fort Huachuca, AZ.

The Court resets the bench trial to 4/23/19 at
9:00 a.m. for two days.

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Excludable delay under 18, United States Code,
Section 3161 (h)(7) is found to commence on
11/19/18 and to end on 4/23/19.

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The Court sets a Pretrial Status Conference for
4/8/19 at 9:30 a.m.

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The Court states the Defendant may appear
telephonically for the Pretrial Status Conference.

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Update December 29, 2018

James’ people had a big to-do in Texas today and James had a live-stream of the event. After it was over, while walking to where ever they were walking to, James talked to a man about lawyer and cases.

James mentioned all the money he had paid lawyers only to be offered a plea deal where he pleads guilty to most charges and one gets dismissed. James later admits he was talking about his Fort Huachuca case and goes on to discuss it briefly.

Time marked link to that discussion:

Update February 23, 2019

The last docket entry was a “text only” as shown below:

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Full docket text for document 36:.
MINUTE ENTRY for proceedings held before Magistrate Judge Bruce G Macdonald: Status Conference as to James Alan Springer held on 11/19/2018. The parties stipulate to a continuance of the bench trial.

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The Court resets the bench trial to 4/23/19 at 9:00 a.m. for two days.

Excludable delay under 18, United States Code, Section 3161 (h)(7) is found to commence on 11/19/18 and to end on 4/23/19. The Court sets a Pretrial Status Conference for 4/8/19 at 9:30 a.m. The Court states the Defendant may appear telephonically for the Pretrial Status Conference.

Update June 4, 2019

James Alan Springer’s (aka James Freeman) lawyer filed a motion to withdraw and a hearing was scheduled for today, June 4, 2019, for that matter to be considered. That last entry on the docket history was the scheduling of the hearing today. We’ll have to wait to see what happened with that.

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Update June 5, 2019

James Springer accepted a court appointed lawyer, trial delayed, status conference scheduled for later this month, and Springer gagged.

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Update June 26, 2019

A conference was held earlier this month and the Court entered a “text only” order subsequent thereto:

James’ Motion to Dismiss All Charges

Update August 2, 2019

Feds respond to James’ motion to dismiss all charges:

Just found this on James’ personal FaceBook page. Not real clear, but it looks like he and his wife and his kids are becoming itinerants and heading north; perhaps to Canada. I did not see any indications of his long term intentions.

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Update August 3, 2019

This video helps explain what James is up to in “leaving” Texas:

Update August 7, 2019

I don’t know what to think about this! It was previously reported that James had filed a motion to dismiss all charges, and the Government replied in opposition thereto. Now it is noted that James has asked for more time to file motions. Kaboom! The Court says the extension is moot as the trial date has been vacated! So, what is going on with that? I don’t know!

Recent Docket History

Entry 52 – Text Only

Update August 10, 2019

James Springer files a response to the Government’s response to his motion to dismiss.

Update August 11, 2019

In response to a recent question during a broadcast, James refused to explain his ability to finance his lifestyle, particularly in the context of taking 2 nice vehicles and a new travel trailer, a wife, and 4 kids to live on the road (traveling the country and maybe into Canada).

Following are some screenshots that reflect on one of his and his wife’s business activities back in Rowlett, TX.

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Update August 12, 2019

Looks like the anti-government folks got the big boy in California, “Johnny Five O”, to call for Mark Burgess/James Alan Springer (aka James Freeman) the other day.

Update August 13, 2019

For some strange reason, it appears James Alan Springer (aka James Freeman) has blocked me from his FaceBook page at:

James and Mark Burgess of Sioux Falls, SD have been stirring up the folks in Sioux Falls and in consequence thereof James is proposing an armed confrontation at the police station if he can get enough people interested in showing up.

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Update August 14, 2019

Looks like James’ shoutout to bring in foreigners to plague the good folks of Sioux Falls is working as evidence by this latest video from Mark Burgess featuring 2 out-of-town wannabe anti-government activists (Patrick Roth and his girl).

Testimony of Patrick Roth regarding James Alan Springer (aka James Freeman), from an old news article featuring Patrick Roth at:

(Excerpts)

His videos, however, show that he sometimes conducts audits with a man who goes by the name James Freeman, a well-known figure in the auditing community who also posts his videos on YouTube.

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And in his interview with The Star, Roth described Freeman as a sovereign citizen and said Freeman is not his real name.

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“The reason he goes by Freeman, he tries to go as a sovereign,” Roth said. “He’s more anti-government, more aggressive style. And I don’t agree with that, but that’s just his way of doing things. He’s not the kind of guy that he’s just gonna shoot up a bunch of cops. He’s not gonna do that. But he thinks it persuades the public’s opinion and helps him grow.”

(End excerpts.)

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Update August 17, 2019

Kind of funny, this! It seems Roth has followed Springer/Freeman from Sioux Falls to Rapid City. Perhaps he is looking for some attention from Springer/Freeman who is a big name in their movement. Roth has had his share of hard times trying to make a name for himself within the movement. In any case, he posted the video indicated in the graphic below, begging for money and announcing some of his intentions………..and then, maybe because he didn’t like me taking notice, he removed the video from his channel.

Update September 3, 2019

Springer’s motion to dismiss all charges is pending. A motion to amend was filed and granted; to take into account one of the officers involved in his arrest was terminated by the Fort about a year ago, for cause.

James Alan Springer (aka James Freeman) has taken notice of my coverage of his story. Go to link below for comments following his opening post reflected in the screenshot below.

The following is from James’ thread above and sounds to me like the kind of threat that involves, may involve, the incitement of activities that would clearly be illegal (i.e., physical violence against persons and/or property such as is commonly threatened by such as James and his kind):

As I prophesied, the Court wasted no time in rubber stamping the Government’s motion to dismiss the criminal charges against James Alan Springer (aka James Freeman) stemming from his arrest at Fort Huachuca, AZ in 2018.

Here’s another post from James’ FaceBook thread referenced above. It’s almost as if they are stalking me and my work. Bwahahahahahaha!

I think James and his people are flat out lying about some of what they claim, but that’s alright. Kent and his people sound the same when they make lame excuses for being less than open and honest in dealing with issues.

James page, for instance, gives me “like” and “share” options, but no “comment” option. James also surely knows he can click on “join” in my group if he thinks he has anything that should be posted there.